Washington D.C.
Hydra base
2005
Alexander Pierce was not a morning person. And he didn't bother showing it to people at this ungodly hour of the morning, and especially when he didn't get around to having his morning cup of coffee. He really didn't want to be there, but there was paperwork to go over and mission reports that needed to be filed and of course the fact that Shield was practically breathing down his back constantly.
He went to pick up the stack of papers waiting for him when he heard a soft humming coming from under the desk he was standing in front. He bent down on his knees and peeked under the desk to see a small child with a large stuffed bear on the floor coloring on blank sheets of paper. She was humming quietly as she scribbled on the white paper occasionally pushing a strand of brown hair behind her hair.
He sighed and stood up, "why is there a child under my desk?" he asked pointedly to the other people in the room. At his words, a young woman perked up and made her way towards Pierce.
"I am so sorry Director," she said grabbing the child and hoisting her up, ignoring the whining protests from the child as she tried to get out of her arms and back towards her coloring.
"Who is she?" he asked sternly, not approving of a child on the base. Hydra was many things, but a daycare was not one of them.
"Her name is Yelena," the woman holding a death grip on the child's shoulder as the child squirmed under the woman's harsh glare.
Pierce raised his eyebrows in surprise, remembering the failed project to make more enhanced humans from the Assets DNA. It had been one of Hydra's most disastrous experiment, it was such a complete failure that it had been swept under the rug and pretty much all information pertaining to it had been locked away, and the child that had been named Yelena had been given to handlers to take care of in case he ever needed a bargaining chip. He hadn't bothered to see the child since and he had almost forgot about her completely. He had much more important things to tend to than the girl. He honestly didn't know why he hadn't just left her at the door of some Orphanage seeing as she had nothing to offer Hydra.
The woman was just about the leave with the squirming child when the girl sent him a pleading look as she was being pulled along by the woman.
"Wait," he said suddenly as he stared into her frightened eyes.
The woman stopped to glance at him, her arm letting go of the child. The child pulled away from the woman's grip and rubbed her arm, which would no doubt bruise later.
"Leave her here," he said, his curiosity for the child growing.
"Are you sure Sir? I wouldn't want to inconvenience you."
"No, its fine," he said nodding at her. The woman seemed to have no problem leaving the child with the Director. She was probably happy to be free of her for a while. The child stood in the doorway hugging her stuffed bear close to her chest and staring up at with large brown eyes.
"Hello Yelena," he said offering his large calloused hand out to her. She stared at it before cautiously reaching out her dainty small hands to shake his.
"I know you don't know who I am, but my name is Alexander Pierce," he said.
"I know who you are Mr. Pierce," she said hugging her stuffed bear even more tightly to her.
He was vaguely reminded of his own daughter when she was child at the small action, but quickly dismissed it before looking over her once again.
"So, how have your handlers been treating you?" he said looking her over for any other signs of abuse other than her bruised arm. She looked a little on the small size for a child her age, and her clothes were old and worn. Probably the result of a thrift store purchase from the looks of them.
He noticed the cautioned look in her eyes before she said, "fine."
He nodded his head at the obvious lie before asking, "What were you doing under my desk?"
The little girl shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "I was hiding from Ms. Coleman."
"Is Ms. Coleman mean to you?" he asked tapping his fingers on his desk.
Yelena paused at the question, her forehead scrunching up in confusion at the question. She wasn't used to nice treatment from her handlers and to her that was normal. Her perplexed expression made Pierce sigh as he motioned her forward and bent down on his knees to pull up the girl's ratty shirt to expose the various bruises littering her delicate skin.
"Who did this to you?" he asked sternly as he pulled the shirt down.
The girl didn't answer him as she pulled her arms behind her back and refused to meet his cold and calculating eyes.
"Yelena," he said slowly, "you can tell me, you won't be in any trouble if you do."
"Thomas," she said softly.
"And why would he do something like that?" he asked inquiring further into the incident. It wasn't like he actually cared that her handlers were abusive, which was something that didn't surprise him. They were Hydra handlers, they weren't ordered to be nice to her, just keep an eye on her.
"He's always angry at me," she said as she suddenly found her voice, "I never do anything to him and he always treats me badly. I've tried so hard to please him, but he's never happy."
Pierce pursed his lips before he stood up once again and returned to his desk where he leaned forward and studied the nervous girl intently. He would be lying if he didn't say he felt sorry for the girl, she couldn't control the circumstances of her birth and had not been given any opportunity to prove her worth. Surely she could be put to better use than being thrown from handler to handler like unwanted trash.
"Do you know what I do for a living?" he asked after carefully considering his options.
"They told me that you're the Director of Hydra," she said softly.
"And what do you know of Hydra?"
"You guys want to protect the world."
"Anything else?" he asked, testing her knowledge.
She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her feet.
"Come with me," he said standing up and offering her his hand. She timidly grabbed a hold of his large calloused hand and let him guide her out of the room. This was probably crazy what he was about to do, but he had to show her. He had to show her what Hydra really was.
"Where are we going?" she asked looking up at him.
"We're going to visit a very old friend of mine."
"Oh," she said and then paused before saying, "what's his name?"
"He doesn't have one."
"But how can you not have a name?" she asked innocently, "everybody has a name."
"Not this man," he said before coming to stop in front of a door and entering in his code. The door opened and he led the girl through into the cargo room.
"What is this place?" she asked wide-eyes as she turned around to look at the place.
"It's a storage room, you're not to touch anything, okay?"
"Okay," she said taking his hand once again and letting him lead her to the back of the room.
He led her to the back of the room where a cylindrical shaped box stood. It reminded Yelena of a coffin, but not like the wooden ones, no this one was metal and a little bit bigger.
"What is it?" she asked looking up at Pierce. Pierce leaned down and grabbed her under the armpits before hoisting her up so she could see what was in the box.
She gasped when she realized that she was looking at a sleeping man, his features reflected by the blue hue of the light, his face peaceful with sleep.
Yelena reached out a curious hand to touch the glass separating her from him, slowly tracing her finger over his face. He had long brown hair that barely reached the ends of his shoulders and a pale complexion, paler than hers because of a lack of sun exposure. He had a cleft in his chin, just like Thomas, but his had stubble on it from not shaving.
"Who is he?" she asked looking back up at the Director.
"He's the fist of Hydra," Pierce stated as he lowered her down onto her own feet.
"You see," he said lowering himself down to her level, "he was created by Hydra to be a weapon. His work has shaped who we are today, we would not be here if it were not for him."
"Why is he in there?"
"He's just sleeping, we'll wake him when he is needed."
"But what if he wakes up before then?"
"He won't because we control his sleep so only we can wake him up."
"But he doesn't have a name," she said.
Pierce sighed at her insistence that he have a name before saying, "if him having a name is that important, then I guess you may call him Zima."
"Zima," she said testing out the name herself a few times, "I like it."
Pierce smiled at her naivety and innocence that would soon be taken from her. She was such a curious little girl, which was so ironic considering who her biological father was. But soon Hydra would strip that away from her, and she was going to have to be ready for that.
"Yelena," came the woman's voice from the door, "it's time to go."
"Go on," he said motioning his head towards her handler.
"Goodbye Mr. Pierce, goodbye Zima," she said addressing both him and the cryo-tube before running to the woman in the doorway.
If only she knew who Zima really was to her, but that was something that would remain hidden from her and the Asset. If either of them knew, it could jeopardize their loyalties and distract them. He wasn't sure if that would be the case for the Asset considering he was nothing but a weapon and had gone through years of extensive wipes and programming. He only knew the mission, not of family or love because he wasn't human.
He shakily got back on his feet and glanced one more at the sleeping man that slept peacefully and totally unaware of the world. He would be awakened when he was needed, but for the mean time all that was left for him to do was to sleep.
He pulled out his phone and raised it to his ear before saying, "Pull all files pertaining to the Little Winter project and leave them on my desk."
With that he walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving the soldier to his cold and dreamless slumber.
Falls Church, Virginia
2015
"You think he's still connected to Hydra?" asked Sam staring at the office doors as people walked out, looking for the Doctor.
"He might be," said Steve, "that's why we need to be careful. Then again he might not be, in any case he should be viewed as a threat."
"I wonder why he isn't dead," mused Sam, "you know what happened to the others, so what makes him special?"
"He's connected to Hydra in some form or another," said Bucky for the first time since leaving Mrs. Levine's house, "if he wasn't he would've been viewed as a liability and disposed of."
"His dad retired from Hydra," Sam pointed out, "so we know that they don't dispose of everybody that could be a liability."
"Yes, but he still consulted," said Bucky casually looking out the window, "he also knew what would happen to him and his family if he defected."
"Do you think he's in hiding?"
Bucky snorted, "If so, he's doing a shit poor job of it."
"Guys," said Steve nodding towards a balding middle aged man walking out the front door.
He looked older than in the picture, but it was definitely him with glasses. Bucky and Sam nodded as they slipped out of the car, Sam coming up behind Steve and Bucky splitting away in case he decided to try and run.
"Excuse me," said Steve walking up to him. The man turned to look at Steve, his eyes widening in shock and fear before making a mad dash the other way, but Bucky was ready for him.
It was a good thing no one was present to watch as Bucky grabbed him by his metal arm and threw him onto the ground. The man hit his head and crumpled to the ground unconscious, but Bucky didn't see that. All he saw was a Hydra scientist, just like the ones that had experimented on him and made his life a living hell. He could feel himself reverting back to the Winter Soldier as he advanced on the pathetic little man lying on the ground, but he was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt a steady but firm hand on his shoulder and Steve telling him to calm down. He took a deep breath as he watched Sam checked over the man for any serious injuries before he and Steve hoisted the man into the back of the car.
"How bout next time we don't do that," said Sam looking at Bucky through the rearview mirror, "we don't want to have a dead body on our hands."
"Too hard?" Bucky said Bucky sarcastically to the man.
"A little, but he deserved it."
Within ten minutes they were back on the highway heading back to D.C. with Bucky in the back keeping his eye on the sleeping man and Sam and Steve in the front discussing what they should do with Levine when Steve's phone rang.
"Where the hell are you?" came Natasha's audible voice from the other end.
"Hello to you too Nat," Steve said pleasantly.
"I'm not kidding Rogers, if you went after the girl without-"
"Calm down Natasha, we're heading back to D.C. right now with an extra passenger."
"Who?" she asked suspiciously.
"One of the Hydra scientists that worked on the project," he said glancing casually back at Bucky.
"How'd you pull that off so quickly?"
"Well we had a little help from a very nice lady in Falls Church. Told us exactly where to look," he said pulling the visor down, "and Tony helped too."
"Is James with you?" she asked.
"Yes," Steve stated slowly but steady.
"And he knows-?"
"Yes Nat, he knows."
There was a pause on the other end before she said, "just get back here soon, I'm sure you can explain everything then."
Bucky heard a soft groan coming from the man as he tried to sit up but didn't get the chance to before Bucky had delivered a nonfatal blow to the face, effectively knocking the man out cold again.
"See you soon," said Steve hanging up and turning back to Bucky with an unapproving glare. Bucky just simply shrugged at him, questioning what he would've done in his place. Steve just sighed and shoved his phone back into his pack pocket.
"She seemed angry," Bucky said stating the obvious, his eyes darkening just a little as they stared at Steve.
"Where they ever going to tell me?"
"No," he stated simply looking back at Bucky searching for a reaction.
Bucky clenched his metal fist and stared out the window at the passing trees. Of course they weren't going to tell him, he was unstable and they couldn't know how he was going to react. They had wanted to play it safe because they didn't want to lose him. But at the same time he felt betrayed and angry. They had no right to keep such information from him, he deserved to know everything that they had taken and done to him.
"Eventually they were planning to, but they felt now was not the time."
"They had no right," Bucky said glaring at him, his eyes feigning betrayal.
"No they didn't, that's why I told you."
"Thank you," he said so softly it almost went unheard. The rest of the car ride was silent as Bucky stared at the window, his thoughts occupying his mind and the picture in his hands weighing him down with an invisible force.
AN: Thank you to all who have Favorited, followed, or commented.